PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

YOM PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURS

POSTGR INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

ADUATE
COLLEGE
by
Hiwot Mathewos
ID:- GSHE/044/2015

Assignment submitted to zerhun Ganewo( Ass. Prof.)

Aug. 2023.
Hawassa, Ethiopia.

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

1
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Contents

1. List Question for Individual Assignment.................................................................................3

2. Answer of the question for Individual Assignment..................................................................3

2.1. Review the concepts of project evaluation and review techniques (PERT).....................3

2.2. Explain the resource optimization techniques (support with examples)...........................4

2.3. Review on the techniques for a project duration and resource estimation techniques?....6

2.4. Explain the Select a given simple tentative project and develop a work breakdown

structure........................................................................................................................................9

Reference.......................................................................................................................................12

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

2
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

1. List Question for Individual Assignment

1.1. Review the concepts of project evaluation and review techniques (PERT)
1.2. Explain the resource optimization techniques (support with examples)
1.3. Review on the techniques for a project duration and resource estimation
techniques?
1.4. Select a given simple tentative project and develop a work breakdown structure

2. Answer of the question for Individual Assignment

2.1. Review the concepts of project evaluation and review techniques

(PERT)

Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a procedure through which activities
of a project are represented in its appropriate sequence and timing. It is a scheduling technique
used to schedule, organize and integrate tasks within a project. PERT is basically a mechanism
for management planning and control which provides blueprint for a particular project. All of
the primary elements or events of a project have been finally identified by the PERT.
In this technique, a PERT Chart is made which represent a schedule for all the specified tasks
in the project. The reporting level of the tasks or events in the PERT Charts is somewhat same
as defined in the work breakdown structure (WBS).

Characteristics of PERT:-
The main characteristics of PERT are as following:
1. It serves as a base for obtaining the important facts for implementing the decision-making.
2. It forms the basis for all the planning activities.
3. PERT helps management in deciding the best possible resource utilization method.
4. PERT take advantage by using time network analysis technique.
5. PERT presents the structure for reporting information.
6. It helps the management in identifying the essential elements for the completion of the
project within time.

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

3
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Advantages of PERT:

It has the following advantages:

1. Estimation of completion time of project is given by the PERT.

2. It supports the identification of the activities with slack time.
3. The start and dates of the activities of a specific project is determined.
4. It helps project manager in identifying the critical path activities.
5. PERT makes well organized diagram for the representation of large amount of data.

Disadvantages of PERT:
It has the following disadvantages :
1. The complexity of PERT is more which leads to the problem in implementation.
2. The estimation of activity time are subjective in PERT which is a major disadvantage.
3. Maintenance of PERT is also expensive and complex.
4. The actual distribution of may be different from the PERT beta distribution which causes
wrong assumptions.
5. It under estimates the expected project completion time as there is chances that other paths
can become the critical path if their related activities are deferred.

2.2. Explain the resource optimization techniques (support with

examples)
The resource optimization techniques, in project management, are tools that are used to adjust
the implementation and completion dates of project activities to adjust the planned resource used
and the resource availability. It is a tool used in the Schedule Network Analysis to calculate the
schedule compression of the project. There are basically two types of tools used by the resource
optimization techniques as follows:

1. Resource leveling:

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

4
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

It is realize that projects may not go as planned due to resource shortages. In these instances,
must to find ways to adapt to the situation at hand to ensure project deliverables are not affected.
Resource leveling technique used to adjusts the start to finish dates based on the constraints of
the resources. It has a goal of balancing the demand for the resources using whatever supply
available. It is used when required resources are available at certain limited times and quantities
or when over-allocated. It is also used when the resource is assigned to two or more activities
during the same period or if the resource usage needs to be kept at a constant level. Resource
leveling often causes the critical path to change.

Advantages of resource leveling:

 Its ability to minimize deficits

 Efficient use of resources

 Prevents over-allocation

 Ensures successful delivery of quality outputs

Disadvantages of resource leveling:

 Can cause delays in other projects

 Budget over-runs

 May demand extra resources

2. Resource smoothing:

It is a technique used to adjust the activities of the schedule model. It ensures that the
requirements for the allocated resource on the project do not go beyond or exceed the pre-
defined resource limits. Thus, the project’s critical path remains the same thus the completion
date may not be delayed.

Project managers use the resource smoothing technique when time constraints take center stage.
Resource smoothing, or time-constrained scheduling, ensures that the requirements stay within
budget to prevent the project from exceeding the sources allocated for the project.

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

5
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Project managers have to assess the resources' workload to see how they can ensure project
outputs are delivered on time.

Advantages of resource smoothing:

 Successful and on-time project delivery

 It is an efficient and cost-effective way to use resources

 It is benefited that to Know your resources, Save cost, Know the company's position,
Make cost-effective decisions, Opens the doors to business expansion, More growth
opportunities, Transparency and Improves employee efficiency.

Disadvantages of resource smoothing:

 Project managers will have to delay some work to give the particular project first priority.

 To prevent delays, the schedule usually has little flexibility

2.3. Review on the techniques for a project duration and resource

estimation techniques?

Estimate activity durations is a process that is performed to estimate the work periods required to
complete the tasks with estimated resources. This process provides the duration of each activity
which is one of the most important inputs for a project schedule.
Resource estimation is the technique of assessing the type and number of resources required for
an upcoming project. For example, these resources could be human labor, materials, tools,
equipment, supplies, machinery, etc.
It is suppose that there is a construction project coming up. For that, you must ascertain the
number of civil engineers, architects, construction workers, and other labor that will be required.
In addition, you should also estimate the number and grading of equipment, machinery, tools,
and other necessary material for the construction project.

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

6
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

A few project management tools, methodologies, best practices for estimating the duration. They
are as follows:

Analogous Estimating
This is a very important methodology that gives you the entire duration estimation. Based on the
information on past projects that are similar, you can get a ballpark idea of the entire duration
estimation. You may be able to get this information from the Project Management Office or
another project manager; you can use this template for your current project.

Analogous estimating the activity duration is not so accurate in nature; however, it is less costly
and less time consuming than other methods. You can frequently use this method when you
don’t have sufficient time to do a proper estimate, and you have a deadline. Analogous
estimating can be of a part of the project as well since you don’t have to estimate the entire
project. You can estimate activity duration for a single phase of the project if the requirement
/nature of the phase is very similar to the previous processed project.

Parametric Estimating
This method is more accurate in nature. It is based on a statistical calculation of historical data
and other variables. For example, in the design phase in case of a construction project, you may
already have the activity duration: cutting 1,000 stones will take 8 hours and so on. If your
project is of a similar nature to one performed in the past, it is worth your while to find existing
activity duration estimates and historical data from the past project.

Three-Point Estimating
This kind of estimate is based on considering various options like the assignment of the
resources, uncertainty, and the risk associated—such as best scenario-based and worst-scenario
based. The three-point estimating concept is originated from the PERT (Program Evaluation and
Review Technique). Through PERT, we generally estimate three types of duration:

 Most Likely (M)

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

7
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

 Optimistic (O)

 Pessimistic (P)

Of these, Most Likely (M) is based on the resources assigned and Optimistic (O) is based on the
best scenario-based analysis. And the last one—Pessimistic (P)—is based on the worst possible
scenario-based analysis. Once you have these, you can use some very useful formulas to derive
the expected duration. They are as follows:

TE = (O + 4M + P) ÷ 6

Here, TE is expected time, and O, M, P are Optimistic, Most Likely, and Pessimistic duration
respectively. In this way, you can understand the importance of PERT in estimating the duration
of your project.

Heuristic Estimating

This is also known as Rule of Thumb. You can roughly guess that the entire design phase can
take 45% off your entire project time and so on…this is a very useful technique in case of known
phases where you can put an imaginary figure based on the experience.

Reserve Analysis

Reserve analysis is a type of contingency reserve. After fixing a schedule for each activity level
depending on the activity attributes, you can create contingency reserve timing by adding some
percentage in the derived schedule of each activity. It can be changed as work progresses;
reducing or increasing depending on the situation.

There are five methods for estimating resources. Here is a brief description of all the methods:

A. Expert judgment

Expert judgment helps when the project is stuck at some point and need guidance or advice. It is
a way of getting help from seniors who have previous experience in similar projects. The

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

8
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

expertise can be based on an individual’s training, career experience, knowledge of the product,
etc.

You can take this type of guidance from a team member, senior project managers, stakeholders,
consultants, SMEs, etc. It can help you understand the number of resources, duration, time, and
risks involved in the previous projects. Based on that, we can ascertain the resources and the
other constraints in your project.

B. Analogous estimating

Analogous estimation is done when we don’t have much input on the current project. Thus, you
have to research previous project documents, plans, and estimates and find the quantity and
quality of resources required for those projects. Following that, it can base on the calculations on
the upcoming project.

Although this technique takes less time, it is not accurate. Therefore, this method is best suited
when your project is precisely similar to the previous project. Moreover, if the historical
estimations were incorrect, the analogous estimate for the upcoming project will also be flawed.

C. Parametric estimating
It is an estimation method where statistical techniques are used to calculate the cost, duration,
or resources based on earlier project data. You will put the parameters into a spreadsheet or
software that uses data from similar past projects to calculate estimates.

For instance, let’s assume that a construction worker needs 2 hours to dig 100 ft of land using
certain equipment. Based on that knowledge, you can estimate that for digging up 1000 ft of
land, the worker will need 20 hours to complete this task. Thus, parametric estimating methods
give more accurate results than analogous estimation or expert judgment.

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

9
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

D. Bottom-up estimating
The bottom-up method of resource estimation involves analysis done at a granular level. The
WBS has four levels: top-level, controls account, work packages, and activities level. In this
form of assessment, a calculation is done at the activity or work packages level. Then, these
estimations are added up to obtain the total estimate.

For example, we can assume it need different resources for various activities. First, we will split
the tasks and calculate the resources required for each task. Following that, we will add the
number of resources and their costs to get the total estimate—the smaller and more detailed the
task, the greater the accuracy of this technique.

E. Alternative analysis
As the name suggests, alternative analysis means figuring out alternate types of resources, skill
sets, equipment, etc. Based on that, we can select the right project team considering constraints
such as cost, time, and quality associated with each of them.

Moreover, with alternative analysis, can be consider different options on how to allocate
resources. For instance, we can change the type of resources used or reassess the number of
resources. Besides, you can select the best way to perform a task. Since there are multiple ways
to complete a task, alternative analysis makes to find the best possible way.

F. Published estimated data

Project managers can gather resource information from published reports such as trade
journals, websites, etc. You can estimate the resources required from reading the magazines of
similar completed projects. That way, can get an idea of what type and number of resources are
needed for a project of similar nature. Besides, we will also get a glimpse of the resource costs
and the duration.

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

10
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

2.4. Explain the Select a given simple tentative project and develop a
work breakdown structure

Work breakdown structure construction project

When millions are on the line in construction project management, avoiding costly mistakes
becomes get priority. That is why; the vital objective is to prepare an ideal WBS, referencing any
reliable work breakdown structure construction project take as an example. Again, can create it
using a professional tool or even utilize an Excel WBS template.

For better understanding, we can analyze a work breakdown structure for a construction project
related to building a cottage. This is a popular case, as people round the world constantly seek a
breakdown structure for building a house.

This example of a work breakdown structure for a construction project demonstrates that all the
elements are listed under the WBS levels. The lowest levels represent the project deliverables,
and all activities and tasks will be grouped under these lowest levels.
 Level 1 is the overall project.
 Level 2 is the key stage of this project.
 Levels 3, 4, and 5 represent the major and minor deliverables.

The levels on a tree-like WBS in detail in diagram.

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

11
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

 Site preparation. It’ll all start with the site cleaning. The nearby area should be ready for
all upcoming activities. It will take some time. After that, you need secure fencing in
order to carry out all the internal work.
 Buying resources. The next stage of our construction work breakdown structure example
includes estimating costs, purchasing the necessary materials and construction
equipment, and recruiting manpower.
 Construction. This is one of the most important steps in the process of building the
cottage, as it relates to building a foundation and various structures. Painting works are
also included into this part of the WBS.
 Cleaning. After all construction work, you will need to remove scrap and unnecessary
building materials.
 Handover deliverable. Our work breakdown structure for construction project examples
will end with the release of the cottage and the dissolution of the team.

Now look at how a WBS can be visualized.

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

12
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Reference

1. Resource Optimization Explained for Beginners by Steven Male

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

13
PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING COURSEINDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Site: - https://www.runn.io/blog/resource-optimization#:~:text=In%20resource%20management
%2C%20decision%20makers,Reverse%20resource%20allocation
2. How to Create a Work Breakdown Structure in 6 Steps by Sean Collins

Site: - https://toggl.com/blog/work-breakdown-structure

3. Work Breakdown Structure Examples (WBS) by Paolo Kukhnavets

Site: - https://blog.ganttpro.com/en/work-breakdown-structure-example-wbs/#:~:text=For
%20example%2C%20you%20have%20a,makes%20up%20a%20WBS%20structure

BY: - HIWOT MATHEWOS

14